Side Hustles And Your Resume

This week we take a look at the value of doing something outside of work and how to represent those experiences on your resume. Some content pulled from our friends at Medium.com.

Side hustles are redefining how we work and live. The paradigm of graduation, employment, gold watch, retirement has all but shattered and we are finding new and innovative ways to chase passions and make some extra cash. I’m very excited to see the number and variety of ways people are taking risks in terms of creating ways to find that balance and the overall reduction in complacent worker bees.

In fact, some of the more bleeding edge resume and career advisors would argue that our side projects are even more valuable than our body of work from an employment perspective. Representing those hustles can make or break our resumes - not our work experience.

They justify this thought process as follows:

Side hustles show me something special: Simply knowing that a candidate chases something different (or outside of) a paycheck is refreshing, if not more and more expected. A hiring manager who sees these efforts already knows this candidate does more with their free time than watch Kangaroo Jack (solid choice).

Side hustles take concerns off the table: From my experience, the #1 job of the resume is to show value while eliminating doubt. Doubt that you can do the job, doubts that you can use a certain tool, doubts that your previous experience matches the need...all must be mitigated enough for the phone to ring. Side hustles remove much of those risks, as they are prerequisites to operate something successful outside of work. Of course, if your side hustle is more passion than business (like a blog or channel) then you’ll need to bring to light the ways in which they make you a better hire.

Side hustles give me something now: Everyone says they are awesome in their resume and LinkedIn. However when you list your side hustle and include something with live links, full of positive feedback (or both) it provides the hiring manager immediate access to your awesomeness. Compared to some.one who only lists their body of work or includes a LinkedIn URL, you are already showing value and success.

While I believe you can show similar value and passion with a conventional hiring experience, side hustles can be terrific complements and provide the ever-important human element to a digital landscape.